And where's the link to the source?

If you really want to mess up Cuba - drop the embargo and flood them with goods.

If it's unlikely that life can appear I think it's even more unlikely that intelligent life can occur.

I once did put what I thought was plausible figures into the Drake equation and ended up with a value of about 0.8.

Mostly because I think that the chance of an intelligent civilization is low. I find it much more likely for life to appear and spread in a galaxy than for intelligent life to appear that is able to develop technology.

Well - considering the amount of helium literally wasted in balloons this is at least a decent use. But otherwise I agree. Next step would be hydrogen drives.

And here's a video of one.

For buses on regular routes used for public transportation it's a viable alternative since they don't need to drag batteries around.

It's of course possible to have a smaller battery pack and a diesel engine as backup for cases when the overhead lines aren't available for one reason or another.

There are also extra-long buses used in public transportation systems.

Trams are also an alternative, but they have the disadvantage of holding up the line if there's a malfunction in one - or even multiple lines if the city traffic router have decided to make all lines intersect in a non-redundant manner.

That depends on your isp, and what your purpose is.

And if I want some privacy and protection against password snoopers for some features that I want to control on my home server I'm also by default a suspect by that logic.

The internet seems to be a new playground for Big Brother... Make sure that the sheep are walking as the government want.

I agree - there is no need to split Linux, the kernel itself is what you make it to be from the modules you select to suit your platform. There are also distros out there for almost any conceivable platform.